Tennis icon Venus Williams has opened up on her terrifying battle with fibroids – and revealed doctors initially misdiagnosed the problem as normal period symptoms.
Williams, who has won seven women’s grand slam singles championships, discussed her painful experience during an interview with TODAY.
The 45-year-old says that when she approached doctors with concerns about her period pains, those concerns were dismissed as ‘normal’. But the problem eventually turned out to be fibroids – which are benign smooth muscle tumors of the uterus.
‘As bad as things were for me, crazy amounts of bleeding like you couldn’t imagine … my doctors told me it was normal,’ she said. ‘I never realized (anything) was wrong.’
‘I’m sharing now because I was outraged that I didn’t know this was possible. I didn’t know what was wrong with me,’ Williams added. ‘No one should have to go through this.’
